<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Storm and Sea by Sketchy_Skittles</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28315893">Storm and Sea</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sketchy_Skittles/pseuds/Sketchy_Skittles'>Sketchy_Skittles</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alicia is mentioned, Angst, Character Study, Drowning, Flashback-ish, Guilt, Storms, headcannons, let me know if i should bump up the rating cause idk, near child murder, nnk secret santa, sorta - Freeform, why do all my secret santas turn out like this sjhfb</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:15:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>950</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28315893</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sketchy_Skittles/pseuds/Sketchy_Skittles</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The eye of the storm was a volatile spell, that much was obvious. Ancient and powerful and near impossible to control, it could level whole fleets in a matter of minutes simply by turning its gaze towards them. No sailor caught in its storm had ever escaped its wrath alive.<br/>And now that power was his to control, all to destroy one measly ship. Or, rather, one measly child.</p>
<p>aka a look at what Shadar was up to after summoning the eye of the storm</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Storm and Sea</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The waves churned far beneath him, foamy and dark and endlessly deep, sheets upon sheets of rain crashing down from on high. Wind whipped the raging ocean in all directions and were he affected by the storm he was certain it would have sent him barreling into the sea. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Thank goodness for magic, he supposed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The eye of the storm was a volatile spell, that much was obvious. Ancient and powerful and near impossible to control, it could level whole fleets in a matter of minutes simply by turning its gaze towards them. No sailor caught in its storm had ever escaped its wrath alive.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And now that power was his to control, all to destroy one measly ship. Or, rather, one measly child.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They’d fought not long before, his magic clashing with the boy’s and his companion’s, shooting out sparks across the water that scared away the sea beasts and nearly burnt the sails. It was all a cover; a distraction to keep their eyes off the darkening sky and their thoughts away from dry land as the spell prepared itself overhead. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>This is quite melodramatic,</span>
  </em>
  <span> he thought early on in the fight, casting fell wind and knocking the girl’s seed sprite back several feet. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He is a human child, after all, I could have simply burned the ship while he slept.</span>
  </em>
  <span> The flipping of pages caught his attention and before he could continue his thought a spire of fire erupted from the ground, whipping wildly around him and leaving a series of painful burns in its wake.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>...Though, I’ve been given this power already. Why not put it to use?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He pulled away from the battle once the storm finished brewing overhead, hiding from view and drifting upwards to direct its gaze and control the maelstrom it unleashed. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>And so he found himself here, floating close to the churning water, watching the boy beneath the waves struggle to break the surface. Shadows hid many of his features, turning him for the most part into a flailing silhouette, but his eyes remained visible still, staring him down without seeing him, wide with horror even as his movements seemingly began to slow. How easy it would be, he thought, to kill him now, when he could not counter it. To send a spire of ice clean through his heart before the ocean could swallow him whole, condemning his soulmate to death and failure by his own hand directly. To watch the light fade from his eyes as he </span>
  <em>
    <span>won</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Magic gathered in his palm, cold to the touch. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He reared back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He took aim.</span>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The boy stopped struggling, half-lidded eyes meeting his own, as though seeing him clearly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He froze.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Images of his youth ran through his mind unbidden, throwing him back decades—</span>
  <em>
    <span>centuries</span>
  </em>
  <span> even—replacing thrashing seas with ravenous fire. Screams filled his ears, pained and desperate, a sense of disgusted fear making his stomach churn. And in the center of it all stood a young girl no older than ten, burned in many ways by a war that had nothing to do with her. As far as he’d known at the time, that is.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A low clap of thunder pulled him back to the present, staring down the child he’d sworn to kill. The emotions remained, however, digging themselves an even deeper pit within him as a thought crossed his mind:</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>He has her eyes.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A wave reared up beneath him, brushing his cloak as it passed. Some part of him, still young and hopeful and painfully naive, recoiled in horror.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>He is a </span>
  </em>
  <span>child</span>
  <em>
    <span>.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The thought wasn’t foreign, he’d faced it many times during his time as the Dark Djinn, but his response to it varied whenever he faced it. Often it drove him to strike harder and stronger, determined to bury it deep enough that it would vanish from his mind. Other times he would pull back, return to his empty castle without their blood on his hands and spend the rest of his day perched silently on his throne, waiting for the sense of horror to leave him. Neither worked, the thought and feeling lingering in his mind and aging him by years for each day it remained. Even still, he shook the magic from his hand, simply watching the boy drift as an ancient weariness settle across his shoulders.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>No matter which side he took, no matter the circumstance, he never found himself winning a single battle he fought. He defeated his foes often enough, yes, but the bone-deep ache remained regardless; he never took joy in these so-called victories. His whole life had been spent fighting and fighting and fighting in wars he’d never wanted, battles he’d never won</span>
  <em>
    <span>.</span>
  </em>
  <span> He was just so </span>
  <em>
    <span>tired. </span>
  </em>
  <span>He’d give anything to finally be able to </span>
  <em>
    <span>rest</span>
  </em>
  <span>, free from the ache of his actions.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The boy’s hair poked above the water, stark red against the dark sea. His fated destroyer, still completely at his mercy, half-drowned by the storm he controlled. His life laid in the mage’s hands.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Perhaps...</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>..perhaps the boy could give us both what we want.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Drifting upwards, Shadar adjusted the pull of the storm, weakening its winds and pointing them southwards as the boy and his companions were reunited on the crest of a wave. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Never in history had anyone survived the eye of the storm, its volatile waves and winds turning even the strongest ships to scraps within moments. And yet Sindbah’s ship arrived on the Fairyland’s shores, all members of the crew accounted for, Oliver and his friends still alive. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shadar returned to his castle soon after, certain of the choice he made, and settled quietly on his throne once again.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>for @ nnkflavouredshortcake on tumbr as part of the nnk secret santa! She asked for either ivory scepter or shadar content and I absolutely took this as an opportunity to play around with some headcannons lol.<br/>I know in cannon the claim Alicia saved them from the storm or something but also I decided that's nonsense and its more interesting imo if Shadar was the reason they made it through sksjdlfkj<br/>thanks for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>